


The Way the World Ends

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: And All Around Is the Desert [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Charn, Dark, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Sisters, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13857897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: Jadis takes a deep breath and sets her feet and shoulders before she begins to speak the Deplorable Word. That moment is her undoing.





	The Way the World Ends

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet was written 3/2/18, in response to the [Genprompt Bingo](https://genprompt_bingo.dreamwidth.org) square _apocalypse_. *evil smile*

Jadis takes a deep breath and sets her feet and shoulders before she begins to speak the Deplorable Word, and that moment, that heartbeat of preparation (and her arrogant refusal to conceal it) is her undoing.

Cynara lunges forward and jams the point of her dagger into her sister's mouth, piercing her tongue and choking her throat with blood. Even so, the first syllables of the Word buzz in her mind like fiery wasps, digging holes between the familiar paths of her thoughts to lay their poisonous eggs, and she feels a foreign hunger stir, restless and newborn, in her gut.

She never wanted to know the Deplorable Word. What would be the use of ruling an empty, barren world? And why look beyond the walls of the universe when there are so many riches right here to hand? True, their world is dying, but that death is slow: Charn has stood ten thousand years since Lilith stepped through a door to reshape the world in her image, and would have stood ten thousand more after Cynara's own reign before the weary sun dwindled to ash and embers. She had such plans...

No more.

Cynara cradles her sister as Jadis falls, unconscious and scrabbling for breath, and knows with dreadful certainty that she will never sleep easy again until she both learns the missing syllables and speaks them all herself.

Well.

Death is not the fate she would have chosen for Charn, but she is Queen and Empress and this world's fate is hers to choose and impose. And there are other worlds.

Perhaps she'll even take Jadis with her when she finds another door.


End file.
